The Baltimore Ravens have had many great cornerbacks play for them over the course of their franchise history. For a team that prides themselves on defense, their secondary is extremely important, and multiple cornerbacks have stepped up and played the best football of their career in Baltimore.
One of the cornerbacks who has had a long and storied career with the Ravens is Jimmy Smith. He was selected with the 27th overall pick in the first round of the 2011 NFL draft, and has since accumulated 374 total tackles, 14 interceptions, three forced fumbles and three sacks in his 11 NFL seasons.
Even though his box score statistics are impressive, they don’t tell the whole story for Smith. He has been a lockdown cornerback for most of his career, but as he potentially enters his age-34 season in 2022, there have been many questions about whether Smith will be back in Baltimore next year, as well as if he’ll decide to continue playing at all.
One major factor that has plagued Smith throughout his NFL career has been his lengthy injury history. The veteran cornerback has only played in a full season twice over his 11-year professional football journey, with his last fully healthy season coming in 2015. If the Ravens were to bring back Smith, they would have to do so knowing that he most likely wouldn’t be available for all 17 games in 2022.
Smith isn’t going to be a player that demands a massive contract on the free agent market. He signed a one-year, $3.5 million deal with Baltimore to return in 2021, and he has publicly said that it wouldn’t make sense for him to go to another franchise to continue his playing career. Ultimately what that means is Smith will either be playing with the Ravens in 2022 or for no one at all.
While Smith isn’t a No. 1 cornerback anymore, he still has value. However, he’d most likely need to be the fourth or fifth cornerback on the team in order to justify bringing him back, as it would benefit Baltimore to have a three-headed monster at cornerback, something that Smith was a part of during his prime. He’d be a phenomenal player to bring back on team-friendly deal where he can have a reduced role to keep him healthy, but it would be hard for the team to rely on him as a starter at this point in his career.